clade

/kleɪd/

//kleɪd// noun

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

"clade" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“clade” is uncommon English (frequency #61,371 among 5,599 “C” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#61,371
frequency rank, English
5,599
“C” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A group of animals or other organisms derived from a common ancestor species.

Corpus desk

Index EN-clade · clade · English

clade · rank #61,371 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #61,371
  • LEN-MID 5 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 5,599
  • PHOTO-FINISH Clacton

Nearest frequency peer: Clacton (-1 rank slots)

Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Long-tail ranks near “clade”

Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter

corpus weight

What this shows Long-tail view: where “clade” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for clade
PropertyValue
Headwordclade
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
IPA/kleɪd/
Letters5
Frequency rank#61,371
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “clade” in English

Word frequency stretches from the small set of words we reach for constantly (left) out to the long tail barely used once in a while (right).cladefalls in this rarity band:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

The axis is logarithmic, with each marked tick roughly ten times rarer than the last. Rare peers in the same band: “Clacton” (#61,370), “clanging” (#61,372), “classier” (#61,374). Among 5,599 “C” headwords, “clade” is #61,371. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

clade is uncommon English at frequency #61,371 among 5,599 “C” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /kleɪd/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.

No misspelling variants are generated for clade in our index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. Our dataset records no confusable match here, which usually means its spelling is distinct enough that readers don't reach for a similar-looking word instead.

Etymologically, the entry records: Learned borrowing from Ancient Greek κλάδος (kládos, “shoot, branch”). Coined by British evolutionary biologist, philosopher, author Julian Huxley in 1957 in a paper titled The Three Types of Evolutionary Process in Nature. Doublet of cladus. The correct English form is clade, spelled C-L-A-D-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    A group of animals or other organisms derived from a common ancestor species.
  2. 2
    A higher level grouping of a genetic haplogroup.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how clade appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. All three clades containing Prunum and “Volvarina” species contain morphological features that do not collectively appear in any other living or fossil marginellid species (see above).
  2. No one has ever tabulated the number or percentage of non-trending clades within larger monophyletic groups. The concept of a non-trending clade — the higher level analog of a species in stasis — has never been explicitly formulated at all. If only one percent of clades exhibited sustained trends, we would still focus our attention upon this tiny minority…

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Ancient Greek κλάδος (kládos, “shoot, branch”). Coined by British evolutionary biologist, philosopher, author Julian Huxley in 1957 in a paper titled The Three Types of Evolutionary Process in Nature. Doublet of cladus.

This word in other languages

clado(Español)clade(Français)Klade(Deutsch)

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "clade"?
"clade" is spelled C-L-A-D-E. The IPA pronunciation is /kleɪd/.
What does "clade" mean?
As a noun, "clade" means: A group of animals or other organisms derived from a common ancestor species.
How do you pronounce "clade"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "clade" is /kleɪd/. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What is the origin of the word "clade"?
Learned borrowing from Ancient Greek κλάδος (kládos, “shoot, branch”). Coined by British evolutionary biologist, philosopher, author Julian Huxley in 1957 in a paper titled The Three Types of Evolutionary Process in Nature. Doublet of cladus. See the full etymology section above for more details.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar English words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "clade", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

cleat#61,376combi#61,384Caryl#61,348Candi#61,344

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list